Flexible plastic bags are used extensively to carry goods of many varieties. They are found in grocery stores where recently-purchased groceries are packed in wicketed plastic handle bags for transport to the consumer's residence. They are also used as original packages for granular material such as pet food, fertilizers and salt. In the latter instances the bag may contain material weighing 20 kilograms or more. The material from which such bags are made is very strong and such bags usually include a punched-out opening at the top through which the purchaser can insert his hand so that he can carry the bag suspended at the end of his arm. Anyone who has carried a heavy bag of fertilizer, salt or groceries in this manner knows that it does not take very long for the bag handle to cut into the hand to, at the very least, make the carrying of the bag an uncomfortable chore. That is because the bag material is very thin and the load is concentrated along a very narrow line across the palm or fingers of the person carrying the bag.
Other heavy articles are often carried by purchasers or users via handles already provided on the articles. Paint cans, for example, have a thin wire-type bail or handle and the carrying thereof for large distances can be very uncomfortable. Similarly, other products of a bulk or heavy nature (e.g., drywall compound) come in large plastic pails provided with a wire-type bail or possibly a narrow flexible plastic handle. These products also are uncomfortable to carry over a large distance.